User Reviews

the selection is what sets this store off, they must do business with a distributor that isn't widespread across CT. they get beers that the rest of CT seems to not have access to. right next to the best brewery in the state too.

Simple strip mall and a very good sized store but not too large. Excellent selection of domestics and imports, even some NEBCO offerings from time to time too. Staff are extremely helpful and very knowledgeable as well, had a million questions and they answered them all with ease.

Almost right next door to NEBCo, in a older plaza across from A1 Toyota. Place is light somewhat dimly near the beers, not the cleanest or fanciest place like Coastal. Service is OK, usually a bit understaffed and no one will talk to you unless one of the beer guys is free. Selection is great, definitely one of the best in the area. This probably has the largest selection in new haven.

The selection is awesome here no doubt, BUT the attitude staff gives off left a sour taste in my mouth lately. I was always a regular here but lately it seems everything on the shelf is ridiculous out of date. Its a shame for those said reasons I have stopped shopping here, I know I am not the first person here to feel the same way. I found several six packs of certain IPAs that were over a year old, that is just not called for

Definitely the best selection in the area for beer/cider/mead. A solid stock of excellent imports and sours. Hard to get bottles are still hard to get as the traffic here is heavy and things tend to sell out quick.

Shelves seemed to be stocked and cared for regularly; the only old dates I saw were on bottles for which it is entirely appropriate (e.g. Belgians).

I had good experiences with three different staff, all of whom were friendly and knowledgeable.

The selection is near as good as I have seen, with tons of local brews, but also a great selection of craft from throughout the US, and a massive amount of imports. They had two full long aisles of nothing but craft brew, and stacks of cases available (of good stuff, too).

Prices were exactly what I'm used to for craft: no gouging noticed, but no bargains, either.

This is so much better than what I have in SE CT. Then again, that's to be expected. Chances are they've got what you need, and if it's a bit rarer or limited distribution, they've got a good chance of getting it in; keeping it, or not selling out within hours, is another story entirely.

Amity Wine & Spirit has an amazing selection of craft beers spanning 1.5 isles and a few reach in fridges. However, the wide inventory suffers from poor management. I have had three instances where the beer I purchased were past the sell by date on the bottle (Oskar Blues, Smuttynose and a German I could not remember). They provided a refund or store credit, but seemed more annoyed with me than the issue at hand. Always check the date on beer with low turnover.

Avoid shopping here in the evening. This store is frequented by questionable characters looking for inexpensive alchohol and young people looking for cheap beer.

My wife and I were heading to Philly for a long weekend and decided to get some growlers filled at the New England Brewing Company. We got there 30 minutes before they opened and decided to kill some time in Amity Wine & Spirits, just down the street.

We were blown away when we walked into the store. It's big and has everything you could want for an alcoholic beverage. Since we were looking for local beers we stayed in beer aisles. We quickly ended up talking with the beer buyer and he really knew his stuff. We got into conversations about Italian sours, american brewers and meads. He pointed us to some rare European finds as well as a few good local CT beers that I can't get in the Boston area. The manager told us he gets all the New England Brewing releases, but they usually sell out quickly.

By the time we left we had over $120 worth of beer in our cart. Some bottles were a bit pricey due to what they were (imported sours, barrel aged stouts), but I thought the price was reasonable for what I was getting.

If I'm in the area again I'll definitely be stopping by Amity Wine & Spirits to buy some more beer gems.

I stoped here based on a recommendation of a worker of the NEBC. I stoped by the brewery to pick up some bot, and wanted some cans for longer keeping and he told me about this place. Never would expect it from looking at the outside, but this place rocks. They have a huge selection, both warm and cold. Lots of bombers and odd six/four packs. Being from NY, they had some CT only brews aside from NEBC, but I was only there for the bot and 668.
Not much in the way of service, but the workers were generally nice. I didnt ask for help and nobody approached me either. Thats ok with me...

There was a sign that says to not take apart the 6 packs because there were singles in the cooler up front...when I checked that out, it was just malt liquour and bud products...oh well.

oveall, the prices were about the same as most places, maybe even slightly lower.
Eventhough this place is about 45mins from my house, I will be back to buy more bot next time they make it, or if I am ever driving by. Worth a visit for sure.

Amity wine and spirits is a very good beer distributor for craft beer. Their selection for domestic and imported beer is great but they do not get a lot of rare releases often, aside from all of the releases from New England Brewing Company which is within a few miles of the store. The staff is very friendly and decently knowledgeable about craft beer in the United States. The craft beer there is generally cheaper than most stores that I have been to which I love. Overall it is a good distributor and worth stopping in if you are in New Haven, Connecticut.

I have shopped here a good half dozen times or more and figured it was time for a review. Definitely seems to be one of the best selections in all of CT, and stacks up well on a more macro level, as well. Particularly for domestic micros their selection is quite good and reasonably priced. They don't offer singles but the 6 packs and bombers are well organized in a long, single aisle as you enter the store. Imports come after that and the one area where I think they are somewhat lacking is in the Belgian import selection. It's decent, but not great.

One nice thing about Amity is that it's the best place to find fresh New England Brewery beers other than NEBC itself (which happens to be around the corner, FWIW). If Gandhi Bot has come out recently, for instance, you'll find it here. In my many visits I have never been approached by an employee asking if I needed assistance, which is fine by me since I would have declined anyway, but at the same time that doesn't exactly equal great service. All in all this is well worth a stop when you are in the area.

Coming form Chicago, this place reminded me of our local Binny's. It's stacked with a wide combination and selection of spirits, wines, and beers. I was kind of growing weary of the tiny package stores around the area and asks the in-laws for some recommendations. They quickly suggested Amity and I was very impressed. The service was very accommodating and had great suggestions for Imperial Stouts as I was in the mood to have a couple of dessert style beers from the New England area after a few slices of New Haven style pizza.

Amity had most of your typically macros available, in the way back, but what I was really impressed with was the selection of craft brews that were available as soon as you walked in. They had a long aisle full of domestics and imports. They also had tones of brews from the New England area like Magic Hat, Weyerbacher, Sebago Brewing Company, and Saranac to name a few that are hard to find in the Chicago area. Definitely worth checking out and will be visited again next time I'm in town.

This place has a pretty great selection, but is a bit picked over. It seems to be the place that carries great beer; standards and limited releases. The problem is that people know about this place. The good thing is that there is another Amity Wine and Spirits just 15 minutes away that isn't as picked over. I didn't purchase anything here but was referred to the Amity in Hamden to purchase the more rare beers I was looking for.

The quality and quantity of great beer is excellent here, but, unless you are on the ball with purchasing the more limited beers, your luck might be better at the other Amity.

This is a very good beer store. The selection is huge, and has a lot of beers that are never available in the Hartford area. I saw a four pack of (brown!) Saison Dupont bottles, and some Ithica brews that are hard to find in CT. I was also able to find the Duvel gift set that is always sold out by this time of year.

Prices were average, and service was quite good. I was asked if I needed help twice on a busy Friday night. My only complaint from this store is that their refrigerated selection was very small and in a seriously cramped area. You can't even push a cart through the cooler area. Otherwise, the stock was reasonably fresh and there were enough beers to warrant the "cart status," so this is a good store in my book.

Stopped in here on my way back from the New England Brewing Company just down the road where I got a growler of Gandhi Bot. Nice little spot, they've got a HUGE selection of wine and liquor and a very substantial beer section, two big aisles, one of Americans and one of imports.

I found the prices to be just a bit cheaper than in MA on almost all of the stuff, but their selection was a bit less. I ended up getting a 6er of NEBC Sea Hag IPA & Elm City Lager, there were some of each in a singles cart so I put both in one 6er, and I got an Avery Beast from 2006 for only $4! Awesome deal I thought.

Worth checking out if you're going to NEBC, and if you're going here - also go toe NEBC down the street and get a growler!

I went here as told by local bartenders that it was the best store in the state, with everything that can be gotten a hold of in the state. A long double row of beer, which is above average for most stores, and it was well organized by brewery and neatly placed. Popular beers in coolers. The manager quickly saw I knew what I was doing, and gave me carte blanche to break up any 4-packs and 6-packs. Prices were fine. A medium sized store, when taking into account the wine and spirits. Well lit up but no real beer geek.

Amity offers a massive isle full of beer, which is divided into domestic and import. Further down the length of the store past the isle, there is cooler storage for beer that you might miss if you aren't looking.

The selection excellent. I feel like If by chance I cant find something here, Ill check Mountview and they will probably have it; and vise versa. The staff is probably fine, though it seems that nobody is really around when I'm there.

The main draw to Amity for me is the ability to break up six packs. And let me say there are a ton of six packs in the main isle to pick from. This gives me an opportunity to try some things I may have otherwise skipped.

Had to hit this palce up after the NEBC barrel age trooper release. Good craft beer selection. The isle spans the depth of the store. Its split betweet domestics and imports. Service was allright if you can get an english speaking staff member. A little disapointed in the fact that they did not have any Captian Lawrance left, but the store got hit hard due to the release. Pricing seemed to be on par, no discounts.
Good effort to support craft brew on there part. I would always like to see more selections.

Visited this beer store with schen9303 and hoppymcgee while at the BA Imperial Stout Trooper release. It's about a block away so I thought... why not.

The first thing that I thought when I walked into Amity was how much it looked like a grocery store and how hot it was. That can't be good for the beer. However, everything was very easy to find here and the shelves were organized in a very logical. This place is real conducive to shopping. A whole aile of bombers complements a couple of fridge-fulls of sixers.

No one helped us but it wasn't like we needed anyone to show us around. There were more cashiers at checkout than there were customers... always good from the shoppers point of view since they got us out real quickly.

Selection here is pretty unbelievable. Shelves and shelves of American craft and a comparable European selection. You'll likely find what you're looking for here if what you're looking for is anywhere around the New England area.

I didn't really get a good look at all the prices but I noticed that Avery's Samael was $3.50... that's at least half the price of any other place I've been to. A real eye-opener and the rest of their prices are also really competitive.

Amity is worth checking out both for its selection and its prices. You can't really go wrong walking into this place. In addition, they're just a short walk from NE Brewing so that's always a plus since you can just walk there for a growler fill at your covenience. Amity also seems to get all of NE's stuff because of the proximity.

I've only shopped here a couple times, and haven't been impressed enough to want to go back. The high point is probably the selection of imported singles (Belgium is especially well represented), but their domestic craft selection isn't bad at all either. The one place they do fall short is on cold beer: their medium sized cooler is largely dominated by BMC. It's definitely worth a look if you live nearby or are having trouble finding something particular, but there are other stores not too far away that have similar overall variety, more cold craft beer, and better prices.

I grew-up down the street from this place, went to school with the owner's daughter. Little did I know I would grow-up to be a beer geek and visit Amity Wine every return trip home!

This place is the anchor store a grody little shopping center. It's like a supermarket for booze. Incredible.

More importantly, their beer aisle is probably 75 yards long and packed full of... well... everything. Macro, craft, micro... imports. If it's available in the state of Connecticut, the odds are that they have it.

I have never been disappointed by their selection... quite often I am exceptionally impressed by some of the gems they keep tucked-away in there!

This place was recommended as possibly having Stout Trooper in stock. I dropped by at 8:30pm excited to get my hands on some more of this nice beer. They close at 8:00pm..

Huh? I don't blame them I guess it's state law. Anyway, the next day I was in a liquor store for the first time ever at 8:00am.... This makes no sense, but whatever..

A full one sided grocery aisle of both imports and domestic. Both sections are pretty impressive. I was shocked frankly. The gentleman working the aisle was helpful and interested in what I was looking for. He wrote some names down that they didn't have, presumably in an effort to find them. However, he wasn't really helpful when asked for recommendations.. Pricing seemed pretty reasonable.

A good stop if you are in the area or passing through. I travel Rte 15 (The Merritt) quite often and will now stop here from time to time to see what they have.

** This week I made my second stop on the way to NYC. Almost on a lark... They had a bottle of Brooklyn Black Ops on the shelf. Last one. Worth the stop..

I stopped here after dinner at Delaney's Tap Room (very close) to find something to take home. The selection is here is very good, definitely as good or possibly better than Manchester in Hartford or Mountview in Naugatuck. I would guess there are 200+ USA craft beers, 100+ Belgian beers, 50-60 German beers, 30-40 UK beers, and lots from other places. Prices are just a little higher than I saw in Hartford ($1 more for Gordon 4-packs) but not too bad. Most of the selections are on room temp shelves but there is a good selection in the cooler in back too (that's where I had to look to find the Gordon).

Located in a strip mall, near a Sam Ash music store, just off Route 15 in New Haven, right next to the Woodbridge border.

Right when you walk in, if you continue straight, you have the micro/craft and german/belgium/other countries beer selection.
I bought some belgian beer and was pleased with the options. They seemed to have a good array of stuff from Southern Tier, Great Divide, Flying Dog and other quality breweries in the U.S.
Pretty good prices overall and attentive staff...glad I stopped in.

I have been shopping here since my old days of living in New Haven and I still stop in each time that I visit. This was a well known wine shop back in the day, but each time that I return the beer selection is just that much better and they stay right on top of current local releases. When visiting the New Haven area, this is the place to stop to see all North East micros, alongside a very impressive international selection. Prices are marginally higher than near by small town heroes; Mountview Plaza Liquors (Naugatuck), but is understandable because of the obvious difference in overhead and not everybody is going to take that trip up route 63.